SXSW Panel, Blog Anniversary & Support

So I’ve missed my blog-a-versary by a month but better late than never! Two years and counting running this online forum has gone by in a blink. The past year has been at times challenging, enlightening and invigorating both personally and professionally.

Your continued support is appreciated.

It’s that time of the year for SXSW panel ideas to be submitted for a popular vote by the August 27th deadline. It eventually goes before a committee before being selected but I still think it beneficial to participate. This year’s submission is titled,“What Steve Jobs Can Teach Us About Engagement”

The past year in particular has been one of intense upheaval and renewal. I’m still working on the book project I mentioned last year. I realized that I didn’t want a hastily put-together e-book but want something more substantive. Also I want to focus on how women use social media.

I decided I wanted to change careers and that required a physical move to what I thought was a more amenable location. I’ve spent the past several months actively engaging people (via attending conferences and networking industry events) who I thought might share similar interests.

My job search has been equally entertaining and aggravating as I’ve tried to position myself with a certain authority related to using social media. Today I had an eye-opening conversation with an industry insider who told me I needed to embrace my work as a blogger and the content I’ve provided and that I was being too expansive.

I’m sharing this because social media is like the Wild West and companies are at once asking for multiple disciplines yet not always fully understanding them. It was causing me to second guess myself and everything I’ve done or said thus far.

It just proves that trying to be all things to everyone doesn’t work. Also I think I was being more cautious due to pushback I’ve experienced from being outspoken at times. I’m not going to apologize for speaking my mind online or in-person when I know it’s coming from a pure place. Of course considerations have to be made but if you see a building on fire are you going to stroll on by as if nothing’s happening simply because it’s happening to someone else?

My new motto is: NO REGRETS.

I had another peer suggest to me two months to have a separate blog discussing my job search experiences but I’m not sure I have the objectivity to write about things without becoming overly reactive. Consider this my testing the waters.

I think the tie-in conversation lies with discussing the ups and downs of life after getting out of the Matrix or really for anyone going through a period of transition with no safety net. It’s the bravest amongst us who experience the fear and worry, taking huge chances to fashion a better life with no guarantees but do so anyway.

To that end, I’m doing another brief Blog Drive becuase this is a very crucial juncture for me. I’m asking everyone to click on the donation button at the top right of the front page and support the work that I’m doing here. It of course will be reciprocated in kind – and yes when the blog-based book project is complete I will forward those orignal copies as promised.

Other ways you can help: I’ve also created an Acts Of Faith Blog Feacebook Fan Page that you can join as I start consolidating the numerous online conversations to a convenient place. There’s the Haute Look ad that will take you to a great shopping site and it nets the blog a good return as well. If I don’t ask I won’t receive so thanks!

I’m also putting it out in the universe that (barring some other fantastic opportunity) I want to return to school and attend in either the UK or Scandavia. It will be a separate project most likely but I want to do it up in a big way. If anyone has tips or suggestions email me privately.

We as women need to know the world is available to us and for some of us black women the time to seize the day is NOW. I realize that despite moments of doubt, frustration, hurt and confusion we really are living in the best time ever and need to take advantage of that. Our orientation, gender identity, hair texture, body size, bank account, marital status, political views, etc. do not matter.

{applause} Thank you so much for the work that you're doing. You've helped to enrich many people's lives, including mine.

Yes, the time does fly! LOL! And it's amazing how even subtle shifts in one's thinking can have a HUGE impact on the course of one's life. The things I've done, and new directions I've gone into over the past couple of years would never have occurred to me before. I'm thankful for everything and everyone that has made these new ideas possible.